ConneLi.—On New Zealand Surveys. XXVii 
On New Zealand Surveys. By J. 8. Connex. 
[Read before the Otago Institute, May 25, 1875.] 
Ir has been thought by some with whom I have lately conversed, that 
a paper on the above suhject might, at the present time, be acceptable 
to the members of this Institute, and possibly interesting to the public. 
For a number of years past the feeling has been growing in the public 
mind, that the surveys, at least in many parts of the Colony, were in an 
unsatisfactory condition, and the matter was, during the last two sessions 
of the General Assembly, pretty freely ventilated. 
During hig recent visit to the Colony, Major Palmer, of the Royal 
Engineers, was requested to examine into the condition of the Survey 
Departments of the various Provinces, to report thereon to the Colonial 
Government, and to submit such a scheme as he might deem necessary for 
the reform and correction of that branch of the public service. 
His report, together with the recommendations he had to give, has now 
been made. It discloses a state of affairs in some of the Provinces which, 
although known pretty generally to the profession to exist, has never before 
been tabulated and duly recorded. 
The report is therefore exceedingly valuable, in so far as it contains a 
correct statement of facts connected with the actual condition of the surveys 
of the Colony. 
The remedy, however, proposed by Major Palmer, is open to criticism, 
and I venture to doubt whether it is indeed the remedy, which under the 
special circumstances of the case is required. 
It is of very great importance, in coming to the consideration of any 
practical subject such as the one now before us, that the mind should be 
perfectly clear as to the special result desiderated, and should have in 
full view the entire existing state of surrounding circumstances. 
To apply this to the concrete and to the subject before us. 
A system of survey might be admirable, if the special result desiderated 
were a correct record of the relative position of existing objects, such as 
buildings, fences, roads, railways, canals, &c., &c., and yet might be quite 
unsuitable where the problem was to give possession of a portion of the 
earth’s surface not possessing any permanent marks, or bearing upon itself 
evidences of its boundaries. 
Or, shortly—It is one thing to survey and record an already existing 
possession ; it is another to create it. 
